Letters to the Editor
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Consider Strategy.
Respectfully, I think John makes an error in the way he goes about addressing this here. It's not really a debate about when and even whether transgendered folk are part of the larger gay, lesbian and bi civil rights movement. Of course they are.
Examining the history of inclusiveness and terms like "LGBT" etc. is really taking us down a side street, when there's ultimately one legitimate question here: what's the best way to go about achieving job protection in the quickest legislative manner possible for L,G, B and T? It requires an actual strategy, not just emotional reactions.
So here's what we need to consider: if the bill is derailed entirely for years or possibly even decades because it is passed now with "LGB" instead of "LGBT" does that suggest that the transgendered will have a longer or shorter wait until they find themselves protected by anti-discrimination laws? Personally, I believe if the bill is derailed entirely, it not only keeps lesbians, gays and bisexuals from the protections now, but, ultimately, because it prevents an important major step toward increasing public acceptance of all these categories, it actually lengthens the amount of time until the transgendered will be included in anti-discrimination laws. In other words, if, hypothetically, the LGB version of the bill is passed this year, and its influence leads to transgendered inclusion in the bill five years from now, is that worse than if all current versions of the bill end up getting scrapped entirely on the grounds of absolutes and ideological purity and all four LGBT categories are finally granted the protection together ten or fifteen years from now?
It's definitely the kind of scenario we should consider, if we're going to get past emotion and into the realm of actual strategy. But I do think it muddies the waters if we start getting into side debates about who was included when and why. We're all in this together, but we need to really seriously plan out how to get civil rights for all of us in the fastest realistic manner possible.
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Blame it on the rainbow flag
What you're saying about conservatives spending years to get their agenda implemented, little by little, is so on the mark.
BTW, once we chose the rainbow as our symbol, then we obligated ourselves to accept anyone who wanted in. Personally I think the rainbow symbol has outlived it's usefulness. We need a new symbol.
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how does this all work out in practice?
whenever i wasn't hired, i was never told why. and whenever i was fired, which seemed a whole lot easier, i wasn't told what for. the only time i was ever able to figure that it was done "on principle" not just because i wasn't liked, was an affirmative action case. the entire department decided to go on affirmative action. since the "board room" wasn't to be considered, the "mail room" had to account for all the firings. slowly, by dribs and drabs, all the straight white males were "let go" (LOVE that innocuous term! don't you?). when it got to me the reason was i was late twice in two years. they are NEVER going to tell you the REAL reason! same as with hiring. yes, you see WEIRD instances, like that recent black woman walking off with eleven million because isaiah thomas was fresh with her. but i never saw that happen in reality - or at least the reality i deal with.
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thanks for the opportunity
I'm a registered nurse, gay male, and have for years questioned the omni-inclusional addition of "Letters" to the LGB appelation. Psychiatric reasons for feeling your in the wrong body seem to me to be an entirely seperate concern to those of us who are certain of who we are and how we got here. Our concern is to achieve the same legal and cultural status as heterosexuals. I do not want to infer or imply that Transgender and transexual issues deserve no attention. To the countrary.
Can you imagine the confusion at a fundraiser for Lgbttqqa
individuals. They would immediately caucus and demand that a working group also meet to include ttqqa and lgb individualls to determine the validity of whose initials should be first.
There's an old saying "Shoemaker stick to your last"
I'm queer, I'm here, and I'm proud
Other than LGB individuals my advice is this, start your own group.
Ask for our help in organizing and we'll liase, not join
Nursenora
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There's no such thing as a sex-change operation.
I totally support the gay/lesbian/bisexual thing. Let 'em marry, adopt, hold high office, whatever. But this "transgendered" stuff is nonsense. A man can be mutilated into looking like a woman and vice versa, but there's still that pesky xx/xy chromosome stuff to deal with. You've either got testes and a prostate, or you've got ovaries and a uterus. You can't change sexes like you can religion. Maybe medical science will one day figure out a way to make a human look like a giraffe. But that person will only *look* like a giraffe.
The "transgendered" are as clinically insane as somebody in the 21st century claiming to be Napoleon Bonaparte. Have things degenerated to the point where *everyone's* version of reality is valid?
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the "old womanishness" of nursenora is what i detested most about gays in san francisco
if you didn't have the right type of rattan furniture you didn't belong in our group. you will NEVER be men and you will never have the same cultural status as such. what do you have in common with bisexuals? lesbians? you think transgendered is a psychiatric disability. what do you think we heterosexuals think of you?! and any "act up" pressure on the psychiatric association is not going to change it! i will leave the rant, but the problem is, you are MEAN. back-biting gossiping MEAN. you don't like letters? how about one, "O" - for "Othersexual" (thanks to Jen Gaboury), Otrosexual, better, make it spanish, sound betters.
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Divide & Conquer
It has already been said, but it is worth repeating: Divide and conquer is the trademark strategy of the conservative movement. It's us versus them! Immigrants versus citizens! Married gays against married straights! Blacks versus whites!
The sad part is that nobody is forcing Aravosis into this position. He's doing it all himself. Good job! The conservatives will appreciate our infighting so much that they will . . . . aw, isn't that a shame. They won't give you jack shit. Obedient gays are still moral degenerates as far as republicans are concerned.